00:00 - Tanja (Guest)
You know, I think a lot of it comes down to, once again, how we speak about ourselves and our belief systems, about ourselves, and this is something that we can continuously reinvent and we can continuously curate and step into, because so often we have been living lies that we're not enough, we're not good enough, we're not strong enough, we're not confident enough, we're not enough. It's such a pervasive story and yet we've never defined what enough is. We just keep telling ourselves that we're not enough. But that's a choice. Like says who.
00:40 - Wendy (Host)
Welcome to Reinvention Rebels. Stories of brave and unapologetic women, 50 to 90 years young, who have boldly reinvented life on their own terms to find new purpose and possibilities. I'm your host, Wendy Battles. I need to kick your fears to the curb, do it scared and step into who you are meant to be in midlife and beyond. These amazing women, these Reinvention Rebels, can help light your reinvention path. Come join us and let's get inspired together. Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of the Reinvention Rebels podcast. I'm your host, Wendy. I'm so happy you are here. Reinvention Rebels is a top 2% globally rated podcast. We get all into shining a light on the amazingness of midlife women.
01:57
We celebrate, we elevate, we illuminate the stories of women that are doing the coolest things as they reinvent, who are 50 and above. Oh, I love it so much. And you know what else? Today isn't just any episode. Today is the hundredth. The hundredth episode of the Reinvention Rebels podcast, and for me that is a time to celebrate, celebrating that we've been showering ourselves, shining a light on ourselves and the amazing things we're doing 100 episodes in. I actually never really thought about the trajectory of the podcast, what that might look like, but I'm really happy that you're here for the ride and we're going to be celebrating this month in May we are going to celebrate 100 episodes. So you can stay tuned that even in our next episode I'm going to do a little look back at what's happened over the course of 100 episodes, so you are going to be in for a treat.
02:52
I do want to mention, before we get into my guest today, who is amazing, of course, because they all are, but I do want to take a moment and ask you if you had a chance to listen to the extraordinary Regina Young. She joined me in the guest chair for the last episode and she is so amazing. Her story is so powerful, how she's owning her, awesome. If you need a dose of encouragement, empowerment, you need a reminder of how amazing you are. You gotta listen to this episode that we did. It was juicy and full of inspiration and, of course, I am linking to it in the show notes for easy access. I highly recommend you give it a listen.
03:43
And now let me tell you about my guest today, Tanja Shah. Tanja Shah is a functional health coach, kinesiologist and weight loss coach for women who want to end the struggle with food so that they can get to their happy, healthy weight without the obsession and feel free in their body and life. Through functional lab testing, personalized wellness protocols and mindset coaching, Tanja helps her clients live fitter, healthier and more vibrant lives in midlife and beyond. She's also the owner of Ascend Fitness and Lifestyle, a holistic health coaching studio in Chilliwack, British Columbia, since 2007, and host of the Fit and Vibrant you podcast since 2015, which I have had the pleasure of being a guest on. I'm really excited for our conversation today. You're going to love Tanja. She's got so many amazing insights.
04:54
Tanja Shaw, welcome to the Reinvention Rebels guest chair. Thank you so much for having me. We are going to have a great conversation because we have a lot of stuff to talk about when it comes to midlife women, our changing bodies, what we're putting into them and how we can navigate those changes with more, dare I say, joy and ease, and I know you'll have a lot to say about that. I want to start by asking you a little bit about something we chatted about in our pre-interview talk and you mentioned that part of your reinvention story centers on having breast explant, having implants removed in midlife. I'd love for you to tell us about that experience and how that's figured into your reinvention journey.
05:47 - Tanja (Guest)
Yeah, so let's dive right in. You know, I only started talking about it probably last fall. I had planned for a while to have the surgery and I was nervous to share because most people didn't even know I had breast implants in the first place and I'm also someone who really promotes body positivity and self love and part of me thought, like, is that sort of you know, does that go, you know, in the same kind of vein as that, or is it completely against it? And it was back in 2011, Wendy, that I decided to get breast implants. Not that I didn't love my body or anything like that. I just I am like just ultra flat, like ultra flat, and I always wanted to have some breasts. I'm like it'd be kind of fun. And so I had my son. We were just having one child. We did IVF a couple times, so eventually we decided to stop and like now's the time. So I got breast implants and you know.
06:46
I enjoyed it, like I'm not going to gonna lie it was nice to have boobs and the way clothes fit and everything. It just was. So it was nice and I felt more feminine. I I would say probably I felt more confident when I got them in as well, because you know, it's just I guess you just act as if and it felt great. But then over time you're told that breast implants are going to last about a decade or so, maybe a little bit longer. And as that time came and went and I was now like 11, 12 years post implant, I was starting to think like you know what's next? So at some point I either have to get them out or I need to get them replaced or something's going to happen.
07:24
And at the same time in my health journey I really have evolved a lot since that time, coming from a place of more I'd say even more body appreciation, more of a holistic way of looking at health, and I started doing a lot more of the functional health training as well and realizing that there is not necessarily a great thing to have bags of silicone in your body all the time and there could be some negative repercussions of that. I don't think I ever had breast implant illness. A lot of women do. A lot of women have lots of pretty significant side effects of having breast implants. I don't think I did, but I wanted to get them done because I wanted to be in charge, I wanted to be in control of when I got them out and I never wanted there to be a lingering question of like what if or what if they were causing something that I didn't know. And regardless, I still don't think that having bags of silicone in your body is necessarily going to be health promoting. And so I decided it was about a year ago, actually last in 2023 to get them out.
08:26
And because it took quite a while to get the surgery date and everything like when I decided I wanted them out, then like I wanted them out yesterday but I had to wait and then, coming up to the surgery, I was quite nervous. You know part of my thoughts process and I know this is not true, but the brain sometimes tells you things that aren't true. I was starting to question like would I still feel feminine? Would I still feel as confident? Would I still feel as sexy? Would I still be as sexy without having breasts? And then I think about. I mean, I know, as I'm saying this, I know those thoughts are not true, because there are women who have full mastectomies and are feminine and beautiful and sexy and confident. There are women, and there are women with huge breasts who wish they had smaller breasts, and there's women with like pointy nipples who wish they had flatter nipples, and there are women with like, so there's like there's no perfect breasts really.
09:24
No perfect anything, and I was kind of nervous at how I would feel, how obviously because there was so many unknowns. But I'll tell you, Wendy, I went through the surgery and immediately I felt so good, I felt like I came home to my body and I'm so glad I went through the whole process. I think I have an appreciation for having flat my even my super flat chest, even more than I did before, because it's me and it's who I am and while I might not look like the model on TV or like that or in a magazine, it's who I am and I feel really at peace and at home in my body now and I feel really good about that decision. And now I mean honestly, don't think about it too much anymore. I'm back to wearing bras, a little bit of padding in them and a little bit of because, but that's just, it's who I am.
10:16
So it feels really good and I think as we go through this journey called life you know lots of we make lots of decisions, and sometimes we talked about when you were on my podcast too sometimes you make the right decisions, sometimes you make decisions that if you had a do-over you wouldn't, you'd choose something differently, and perhaps if I did go back, I might have not have gotten the breast implants, knowing what I know now. But you didn't know that and I learned so much along the way and every decision gets you to where you are now and you always learn. You always grow from everything that you make, so for me it was the right choice. I'm not saying that every woman needs to go get breast implants, but it is a good question to ask, because I know lots of women do have breast implants and it's becoming more and more common to also get the explant surgery, because a lot of people do have negative symptoms, negative symptoms because of breast implants as well, and it's just, I know, it's just nice not to have them in your body.
11:13 - Wendy (Host)
Yeah, absolutely, and I think it's really interesting some of the insights you had about your body, and I think you know we're in this midlife stage. Our bodies are changing anyway and we often are having thoughts about them, whatever they might be. But what I really appreciate about what you said is that you came to appreciate your body in new ways and it sounds like also to be less judgmental about your body, where before it's like, well, I want this and I'm going to create this, but then you realize, well, my body is just perfect the way it is.
11:51 - Tanja (Guest)
Well, it's perfectly imperfect or perfectly the way it's supposed to be, and I just think it's like this way I was created to be.
11:56
There's no challenge in loving your body when you have made it exactly as you want it to be, and we do that, sometimes off.
12:05
We think that weight loss like I'm a weight loss coach and I promote you know, body acceptance, body appreciation, body love, and a lot of my clients want to lose weight and that's totally fine.
12:17
But if we only love and appreciate ourselves when we've hit this perfect weight or we have the perfect breasts or the perfect butt or the perfect cheeks or the skin or the hair or whatever, it becomes conditional love, yeah. And then we get to this place and instead of being at, we think that, oh, I love my body and I'll be free, I'll be at peace, I'll be all that kind of stuff. We just end up being in fear of losing that and it becomes a condition that I only love myself when I'm a certain size, when I'm whatever. Like most people have a bit of a fluctuation with my weight and whenever I'm at my heaviest weight or my heavier side of my weight, I always think of it as such a great opportunity to practice this full appreciation and love for myself, no matter what, because my body is not working against you. I was not trying to lose or to gain weight so that I like to punish myself for it, like my body's there to help me survive, help you survive, and so it's really, it's really quite interesting.
13:13
And then the other thing sometimes is I have this thought like, for example, the size of my breasts, like you know, we, we sort of equate having a full bust line with being more sexy, being more feminine, whatever, because that's what we see. But what if we saw something different? What if everyone that we saw who was sexy, who was beautiful, who was like the models, were super flat or super big or whatever, like it was just different? Then would that change how we thought about ourselves?
13:43
So it's just kind of curious, because so often we are so influenced by and we know this, I'm not telling you anything, you don't know but we're so influenced by what we see on social media or what we see on, you know, in the magazines, or what we're told we're supposed to look like, and whether it's the size of your body or the size of your breasts, or the size of your feet or your nose or whatever, it all comes down to the only reason that we are unhappy with what we have is because we think it should be different.
14:12
And I'm not saying that you should just be complacent, I mean, I actually do believe that a lot of women who want to lose weight could lose weight and they might be happier losing weight because they'll be taking care of their body, which is possible it's not always the only case which is possible. It's not always the only case, but sometimes we just come out from this place of like again I'll be happy when which is, that's just a lie that we keep telling ourselves yeah, it's really true and I know that the influence of the media, especially now with social media, I mean before it was bad enough with just mainstream media and magazines and TV.
14:48 - Wendy (Host)
But now, because we are on social media so much whether it's Facebook or Instagram or whatever our medium of choice is it's hard not to be impacted by that and I think, right, like we have to, and especially at this age where I feel like when you're in midlife and things are changing, we sometimes become less confident about our body, and I certainly know you talked about how sometimes you gain weight and certainly I've noticed that, you know, my metabolism is slowing down a bit and they talk about how things start to shift, how, like you know, all of a sudden I got this back fat that I didn't have before and you know, you kind of obviously get thicker in the middle and trying to practice this idea that you talk about of body acceptance, to really appreciate what we have, as opposed to disparaging ourselves or constantly comparing ourselves.
15:46
Or even, you know, you look at celebrities who are rich and famous. Well, well, they can be our age, but of course they have a whole team of people that can make them look amazing and you know they and sometimes it's smoke and mirrors anyway but also they can pay for the trainers and all those people that the average person isn't going to be able to do to the same degree.
16:08 - Tanja (Guest)
For sure. And even if they do, even if it is seriously like that, they still might not be happy, because happiness is an inside job.
16:16 - Wendy (Host)
It is.
16:17 - Tanja (Guest)
It's not. I mean, it's like what 10% of what our external circumstances are, because that does matter and it's 90% of our perspective and what we focus on. You know, a little while ago I was like I'm quite happy with my body right now, and but then I was watching a movie. I can't remember some movie. There was a woman who had a her shirt off in the movie and had these, like you know, probably like a full C perky breasts, and I did have that thought right away, like I don't look like that.
16:40
And as soon as you had that comparison, I felt less them, and so it takes a really concerted effort for us to continuously practice that new story. And talking about social media, I mean the great thing. There are also amazing social media accounts that are more body positive or more self-pop, like you, that preach the message or that share the message of body acceptance, body love, no matter what. And once again I want to reiterate that when I say body acceptance, body love, body appreciation, it does not mean that you have to also settle from where you're at, like you can have you know, maybe you've gained 15 pounds and it doesn't mean that you have to be like, oh, I love my fat and therefore I'm just going to like, use this as a subject, and you can still want to change, but it comes from this place of actually wanting to take care of your body, not doing it so that you love your body.
17:29
And there's just a whole different experience in how you go about things. Because even from like a body perspective, a body science perspective, when you don't feel good about yourself, when you're judging yourself, you're hating on yourself, you're criticizing yourself. That's a stressor on the body and your body knows that she doesn't feel safe and so, from an actual weight loss perspective, that can also take away from your body's desire, your body's ability to lose weight, because you're always under this sort of stressed state. So that's just another reason why it's important to come at it this way, that's really interesting.
18:08 - Wendy (Host)
I really appreciate that perspective that you have and it really brings up this question that because of course it's easier said than done we can talk about. Oh, you know, we're going to try to accept our bodies and we're going to try to ignore the messaging that we see in the media, that's everywhere that says we're not enough, and we're going to really try to lean in even as things are changing. And we're going to really try to lean in even as things are changing. Talk to us a little bit about how you might approach that with a client, because I know it's easier said than done and it seems to me that a lot of this is about our mindset. So almost like, how could we reinvent how we think about our bodies in midlife to really appreciate them somewhat? How do you work with someone in terms of helping them?
18:54 - Tanja (Guest)
shift that mindset, love it? That's a really great question, and I love what you said there, Wendy, about reinventing your mindset, because I do work mostly with women in their 50s, 60s, 70s. I have women in their 80s I don't think I've worked with anyone in their 90s yet who have completely reinvented their perspective, their mindset, and the only thing that will ever stop you from doing it is the belief that you can't. And if you are firmly believed, like if you say things all the time like it's in my DNA, it's in my bones, it's in my blood, it's not like it's harder as time goes on, for sure, to shift your mindset, but it's absolutely possible because I see it every single day and so I love that question. Now, first of all, I think we have to meet ourselves where we're at, and body love and body appreciation isn't about loving every single morsel of your body every single day. Like you said, you have back fat. You might not look at your back fat and be like, oh my gosh, I love my back fat.
19:51 - Wendy (Host)
Girl, please trust me, I am not thinking that. Oh my God, that back fat is so cute.
19:56 - Tanja (Guest)
It's so cute, let's like wear a little tank top to show it off, but that's okay and that's not what body love is. Just like we don't love our spouses or our children just because of how they look right, it's about. It's so much more than that. So I do think it's important to start with where we're at and recognize that we're not going to have a day, every day be like, yeah, I'm in love with my thighs, I love the little dimples on my butt. Like, no, I'm not going to probably ever think that and that's okay. But I like starting with body respect. I think body respect is more neutral. It's more doable If you feel like, no matter where you're at, you just start to respect your body and you might not love everything about it, you might not love it at all, but respect feels a little bit more doable it does.
20:44
And then it's also a habit. It's not something that just falls from the sky. It's not something that we have or don't have. It's something that we practice every single day. It is a practice and just like going to the gym and getting fit. You don't go to the gym and do a couple bicep curls and squats one day and be like, okay, I'm good, I'm fit and done. It's something that you do on the regular so that you keep fit.
21:07
And same thing with body love, body appreciation, body acceptance. It could be something that a practice that you do every single day. For example, you might have a practice that every day after your shower, you look at yourself in the mirror and you say something kind to yourself, like that's something that you could do. And it could be as simple as I'm grateful for my body, for like what my body does for me. Maybe you love your eyes because of what you can see. You love your arms because of the hugs that you can give. You love your mouth because of the pleasure you can feel from from from kissing or from tasting food, and it's about focusing on the things that you can be grateful for about your body and meeting yourself where you're at. So I do think that we got to start small. We got to make it a practice and a priority. We're not just going to like all of a sudden, wake up and be like I love my body Right, and know that not every day is going to be the same. Some days you might feel more positive, some days you might feel like not positive at all, and that's okay. And it's really about also managing your thoughts, and I do like having an intentional practice of practicing the thoughts you want to think and it could be things like you know, having a gratitude practice for your body every day to kind of just start to prime your brain for thinking those thoughts but then also throughout the day, being mindful of the thoughts that you have with yourself.
22:30
I do a five day challenge from time to time and one of the five day challenges that I do one of the first days, I have this exercise called your thoughts are making you fat and women just reflect on the things that they say to themselves or they think about themselves, and then they reflect on like that they say to themselves or they think about themselves, and then they reflect on, like, when they think about those things, what do they do? What do they feel? So, for example, they have a thought, like one of my clients once said to me. She's like I'm just a big fat slob on the couch. I was like ouch, like how do you feel when you say those kind of things? Do you feel excited about moving your body? Do you feel like you want to take care of your body? Probably not, so another big part of this practice, Wendy, is really paying attention to the thoughts that you think and starting to shift them, starting to neutralize them, starting to even just say things like and that's just a thought, because that's all it is. But what happens is we think these thoughts and then we take them to be true and then we feel all the feels, and that just reinforces the thought.
23:31
The last thing I think would be really helpful is to curate an environment that supports more positive thinking. We talked about social media. The great thing about social media is that you can have some control over what you see based on what you follow, and so I do think it can be helpful to follow more neutral or more positive type accounts. I once saw this like I can't this. It was on Facebook long ago. This really, really fit. Ripped woman flipping a tire and she was wearing, like her little booty, shorts and a bikini top and you know, of course, she was Perfect body and it says progress, not perfection. I was like, oh, come on Right, really.
24:09 - Wendy (Host)
Like oh, come on, like, come on Like hello, Like that's not inspiring at all. No, not at all.
24:13 - Tanja (Guest)
I'm like, oh, I should work harder. And if you can't find an inspiring account, just follow cats Like cats are fine. Dogs are fine Puppies there's tons of fun stuff there. Oh, my Like, I really do think that we have to be intentional with the things that are coming into our environment at all. We can't control all of it, but we can definitely control some of it.
24:38 - Wendy (Host)
You just said so many powerful things, Tanja about what we can do and how we can kind of ease into thinking differently about our bodies. And the first thing that I think that I really loved was when you said body respect. So I think often we want to just kind of jump to here's a solution. I want to do it. I want it to be like all nicely put together and you know, like anything, this is a process, especially when it's our mind and we're changing how, as you said, how we think about ourselves, how we think about our body. So I really appreciate this idea of body respect ourselves, how we think about our body. So I really appreciate this idea of body respect.
25:10
I also like, when you mentioned something that you could do which I think is a challenge, is that idea like you know, you get out of the shower and you appreciate something about your body? Because sometimes, to be honest with you, I get out of the shower and I'm not really feeling good. I'm like I just want to hurry up and get ready. I want to just like put on some lotion and look at my body and just like move forward, because I'm looking down. I'm like I don't like this, and so I think that idea that you mentioned of meeting ourselves, where we are, that some days you know we're like you know what girl I love my butt, and other days are like, well, it's not, not as much, but that's okay.
25:48 - Tanja (Guest)
It's okay.
25:49 - Wendy (Host)
I really like that. And the final thing I really love is when you were talking about sort of getting out of your head and getting into how you feel, because I think women especially spend a lot of time up in their heads.
26:01 - Tanja (Guest)
I certainly do, I certainly do too.
26:03 - Wendy (Host)
I'm like, and so I have to work at very consciously, this idea of feeling, to feel into things, and I feel like that's such a parallel with how I think about reinvention, because what you said basically is that it's coming from the inside out. How you feel is coming from the inside out, and that's, as you know, how I think about reinvention, that we're reinventing from the inside out, as you know how I think about reinvention that we're reinventing from the inside out. So I think there's something to be said in midlife for this idea of slowing down and tuning into our bodies for many different reasons, both the more physical idea of appreciating where we are and even you know, when we're talking about reinvention, like dreaming big and going within to tune in. So there's something about that that I think is pretty compelling.
26:52 - Tanja (Guest)
I think the more often we can get out of our head and into anything else that's out of our head is probably a good thing, because we do spend. I personally spend a lot of time in my head and my head could be a very dangerous place to be, so I try to spend not so much time there. Yeah, it's interesting, and you talked about, I think, getting out of the shower. Doing something for yourself in the mirror is helpful, because even if your thought is you might not start with I love anything physically about my body, you might not, that might be too far, but you can even start with something like I have a body or I have thighs, which is true, very true, but it's not mean, it's not criticizing yourself, you're just saying that. Or you can say something like I'm in the process of learning how to take care of my body. You know that could feel true. You don't have to say I love my body, my stomach. You might not love your stomach.
27:40
I do have one client, though. She has done really well. She's on a very consistent weight loss journey and she gets out of the morning and she dances in front of the mirror and she's just like she loves it. She's like I jiggle and I just love it. Because sometimes you know what, Wendy, we think sometimes how would life be different if I looked a certain way. We want to, like I want to lose weight, so that what? So I could be more confident, so that I could be more joyful, so I could be more present, so that I can be whatever. And once again, you can I'm not saying you like, I'm not poo-pooing a weight loss goal. I think a weight loss goal can bring you a lot of those things if it's done right, because you can also work on being more confident, no matter what size you're at.
28:25
Yes, work on being loving your body, no matter your size, and the great thing is, when you actually work on those things like appreciating your body, taking care of your body, weight loss becomes a natural consequence for a lot of people. Anyway, sometimes we ought to tweak a couple things. Sometimes we got to like learn a couple things, but when we come at it from a place of like truly taking care of ourselves, we get to the weight we're supposed to be at for the most part. Once again, sometimes we got to tweak a couple things. If we have some, you know, candida, overgrowth or some hormone imbalances but so much can happen just by focusing on how we want to feel and focusing on actually like taking good care of ourselves and not only on the weight loss. You can still want to lose weight. That could still be a goal, but I do encourage you not to have that as the only goal, and that could change things.
29:16 - Wendy (Host)
yeah, I can. I can totally see that and I can see how it's a work in progress and that we can take small steps right in the right direction. Again, it's not we're rushing to get to the destination. Part of it, just like reinvention, it's a journey. It's a journey to appreciate and connect with and get to know our bodies in new ways, and it often is a new way when we're in the midlife, when our body is different and we might be thinking about our 20 or 30 year old body and now we're in our 40 or 50 or 60 year old body and it is different, but not bad, just different. So just exactly I appreciate that, blessed.
29:54 - Tanja (Guest)
I mean, if you're not growing old, yeah Right, that means you're under the ground, exactly.
30:00 - Wendy (Host)
You know, we think about all the people who, you know, have a lot of physical limitations and they can't do the things we take for granted. We run outside and we do whatever, and that could happen to any of us, though Any of us could become disabled at any time, and I know we often don't think of things like that. So that makes me really appreciate what my body can do. And you know, can do.
30:24 - Tanja (Guest)
And you know, even for those people who have limitations for whatever reason, I mean, still I think it comes from the place that our bodies like. Sometimes we have autoimmune diseases or we have, or maybe there's an injury or whatever.
30:32
Again, I always come back to the idea that our body is always trying the best that she can yes and sometimes like autoimmune diseases don't just happen because your body like hates you and it's like there's something going on and it's a natural response, often for survival. And so, coming from that perspective and, no matter what, appreciating what your body can do, even with limitations, I think could be really powerful, because the other choice is just to focus on what you can't do, and that can be pretty depressing, yeah exactly, and you talked about just a moment ago how sometimes something's going on so you have these symptoms.
31:05 - Wendy (Host)
Meaning that, something underlying that? Can you talk for a moment about what you do as a functional health coach and some of the lab work you do? Is that something that might be a good fit, as women are in midlife and their bodies are changing and they're basically trying to figure out this puzzle, the puzzle of our bodies? Oh, I love it.
31:27 - Tanja (Guest)
So thank you, Wendy. I combine both the brain science and the body science to help women really thrive in whatever their goal is. I know that sounds very vague, but for most women it's getting off the diet roller coaster ride. That's a big part of it. There usually is a weight loss component, but sometimes there's other things going on. So I came to really dive into the functional health side of things because I was working with a lot of women in my programs and they were getting really great results and they were changing their mindset, they were becoming happier, more confident, all of these things. And sometimes all this was happening but then, like the scale just wasn't budging and they just were not losing fat or they were having, you know, digestive issues or just their energy wasn't quite there.
32:14
And I don't like leaving stones uncovered, I want to like dig into everything. And so I wanted to dive more deeply into the functional health side of things to really uncover what's going on in the body science perspective. Because I mean, you can have the best protocol in the world but if your mindset's not there, you're probably is going to have a hard time sticking with it. But sometimes you could have the best mindset. You are consistent, you're doing things but not getting the results that you want. And I love this quote can't remember where I heard it but if you're doing everything right and you're not getting results, you're not doing everything right for you, like you're just not doing everything right, and so it's really about discovering what that looks for you.
32:55
So what I do is I have a variety of programs that I that I run, and this has to be obviously a one on one coaching program. But I look at hormones, immune function, digestion, detoxification, energy production, stress, oxidative stress to see what are the healing opportunities for the body. And then the goal is really to coach up the body's resiliency and the body's function and really to get out of the way so the body can heal, because our bodies are wonderful at healing, but sometimes we just need to remove some of the stressors and give it a little bit more support. And so I do that through individualized protocols. But we do a series of labs first looking at, like in hormones, immune function, digestion, like gut health, um, sometimes mineral status in the body as well, because it can tell us a lot. The other thing I think that can be really wonderful about doing labs and sometimes, like I do, encourage a lot of my clients to go through some of the mindset stuff first before we and foundations first before we can get to labs. Because, again like, if you're not drinking water, if you're not sleeping, if you're always stressed, if you are not moving your body if you're eating processed foods, so it's good to focus on the
34:03
basics. Labs are an investment and I don't want to just waste money on telling us something that we already know we should be doing. So it's good to start with the foundations, but what I find quite helpful and this was true for myself is when I do the labs and I see it on paper, like what my hormones are doing or how my digestion is functioning. It gives me that stronger, compelling reason to go to take care of myself or to work on the habits that I should be working on, because sometimes we think things like, let's say, for example, mindful eating or chewing your food it's like yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll do it when. Or I know, I know, and we don't actually really prioritize it. But then you look at the labs and you're like, oh, wow, I'm not digesting food properly. Maybe I should start slowing down and chew my food and eating in a relaxed state. It's as simple as that.
34:55
But sometimes it could be helpful to see things on paper to really prioritize taking care of ourselves. Or a lot of the women I work with are chronically stressed and a lot of women are retired but they still are. They're hard on themselves, they're doing too much, they're taking care of everyone else. And then you look at the labs and you see that cortisol levels are usually like in the toilet, so they are just tanked, and it kind of again gives that compelling reason to to like maybe it's time now to really prioritize taking care of yourself. So I think that is another added benefit for doing some of the testing. For those who are more analytical and like to see it, I just also find it really fascinating just to see what's happening into your body. I think it could be quite, quite neat.
35:37 - Wendy (Host)
I think it's really interesting and I think sometimes we don't know enough about our bodies and that getting that information can be really helpful to your point in getting a better understanding. I also like that it's a holistic approach. It's looking at the whole body, I mean it's the labs, but it's also looking at some of these practices and other things that we need to do. So, to your point, it's not just doing that, it's like this whole. It seems like a whole body approach too.
36:05 - Tanja (Guest)
It is. It really is because it has, like we, for the protocols. I mean, yes, I do targeted supplementation based on what we're seeing, but that's while. That, for me, takes more of the mind. Work like to figure out the best you know protocols in terms of supplements. Like to figure out the best protocols in terms of supplements. That's about 5% of the healing process. The rest is your diet, your rest, your exercise your stress management, like that's the big part.
36:30
And that's where the mindset comes into, because a big, a big stressor on our bodies is our mindset. It's that negative self-talk. It's looking at yourself in the mirror, it's pinching your fat, it's not accepting your body. We don't even think about that as being a stressor, but it's a huge stressor on our body.
36:47 - Wendy (Host)
So interesting. But yeah, I hadn't thought of it that way. But yes, I can see how that is and I know there are many, obviously many different things that contribute to our stress, like lack of sleep in middle age and how that is so important as we get older, to get sufficient sleep, which is something that I'm working on, so good for you. You know, I appreciate this conversation. It's definitely a work in progress.
37:09 - Tanja (Guest)
I appreciate this conversation.
37:10 - Wendy (Host)
so much about us just trying to kind of. We're all trying to figure something out, and you have some really great insights about how we can do that. As we are starting to wrap up, Tanja, I want to ask you a little bit about my theme for season six of the Reinvention Rebels podcast, which is own your awesome. I believe we are so much stronger and smarter and more accomplished than we often think about ourselves, and I know we've talked a lot about that self-talk and what that does to us and how it can do a number on us for many different reasons, in many different ways. When you hear own your awesome, what does that mean to you as it relates to reinventing ourselves? When I think of that.
37:59 - Tanja (Guest)
I'm like, like man, I have work to do. That's my first thought. So it is a it's a consistent process. All of this, you know, I think a lot of it comes down to, once again, how we speak about ourselves and our belief systems, about ourselves, and this is something that we can continuously reinvent and we can continuously like, curate and step into, because so often we have been living lies that we're not enough, we're not good enough, we're not strong enough, we're not confident enough, we're not enough. It's such a pervasive story, and yet we've never defined what enough is. We just keep telling ourselves that we're not enough. But that's a choice. Like says who says you know the bully in grade three who said that you earned enough, or said maybe your parents told you that one day. And obviously, like when we're young, we have, we're pretty vulnerable to these stories. So, personally, though, one thing I am working on this year and this is not the first year I'm working on this, but is I write down my journal almost every day that I no longer tolerate overwhelm. I no longer tolerate playing small, I no longer tolerate this chaotic kind of busyness of my mind always going, and my husband actually told me. He's like you guys, just step up and just own it, be the boss like, be the, you know, have that swagger a little bit. And so one of my mantras for this year is energy and boss energy so that's what I'm calling it for myself, which just means like stepping up. And I mean sometimes, Wendy, I can feel so I still can feel sometimes so stressed and overwhelmed, like because there's just and it's pressure that we put on ourselves everything’s fine, like the sun's going to rise tomorrow, I have a roof over my head, and yet we put sometimes this, like these pressures on ourselves, and so I and talking about like this is why that other message is so important, why I'm reading books that are, like you know, helping you sort of keep things in perspective. I love Tony Robbins. I love I'm reading another book by Valerie Burton right now, which I love Just, we need to have that message so often of just like letting all that go.
40:13
Like we can achieve, we can be high achievers, but we don't want to be overachievers, we don't want to burn ourselves out, we don't want to keep like moving the goalposts on ourselves and always like never being enough, because we get to a certain level and then we decide that, oh, now we need to go more. Same thing with weight loss. Like you get to a certain size that you thought was your goal. Then all of a sudden like, oh, that's not perfect enough, let's simply be more perfect. And it's never ending Like, what's the point of all this? Because we want to be happy, we want to feel good and that's something we can actually step into right now. So owning your awesome. I love it. I think that's a beautiful theme for season six and it is something that I am working on, Wendy. The book actually is called life.
40:56 - Wendy (Host)
I think it's called life coaching for successful women. It's very good, oh, interesting. Oh, I'll have to check that out. But I appreciate this approach, that you have to thinking about how you take on this identity, how you can step into this, that we're all working on owning our awesome, because, you know, it's like everything. It's just like with our weight or our bodies. Some days we're like, oh my gosh, I love my body, I love just the way it is, or I'm appreciating it, and other days we're like, not so much. I think it's the same thing, right, with this idea of this confidence. Oh, totally Right, and being able to just kind of get out there. So I like your idea of this swagger, about being this boss woman who is just like taking that on, and that's a great way, I think, to practice owning our awesome, absolutely.
41:42 - Tanja (Guest)
And it is a practice, it is an intention, it is something that I think about, like even on my planning sheet. The very top says boss energy and then I write down like I got to keep thinking about it, otherwise your default is back to these old patterns of again playing it small negativity, doubts, fears, this whole like kind of life so hard, so hard, like that is not serving me. It really isn't.
42:06
It's yeah it feels good because I get to be the victim, maybe, and I get to, like you know, complain, but that's about it and that's not really what I want.
42:15 - Wendy (Host)
I hear that I hear that completely. So we're both a work in progress, like everyone who's listening, and we're, all you know, taking baby steps. I feel like forward, and this conversation has been so helpful in thinking about how we can appreciate ourselves more and things that we can do. You shared some really great suggestions for very specific things that we can do to kind of ease into a stronger mindset about our body, so thank you for that. I have to ask you because I know people are going to be saying, oh my gosh, Tanja is fascinating. She's got these great ideas. She's very insightful. Where can people find you, Tanja, who want to learn more about what you do?
42:57 - Tanja (Guest)
and your podcast, thank you. If you are a podcast listener, which you are, the best place is, well, my website, which is Tanjashaw.com. That links to everything. My name is out with a J, so T-A-N-J-A-S-H-E-W. And then my podcast is called the Fit and Vibrant you and it's on iTunes, spotify, stitcher Radio, I think it's on Google Play. It's on pretty much everywhere. I think. Usually, when you put it into your podcast hosting place, it kind of just speeds up Exactly, I love it so many places.
43:30 - Wendy (Host)
And what about on socials? Where can people find you?
43:32 - Tanja (Guest)
Oh yeah, I think I on Facebook I think I'm Tanja Shaw, Just T-A-N-J-A-S-H-E-W, and on Instagram I am Tanja underscore Shaw, because Tanja Shaw was taken.
43:50 - Wendy (Host)
So love it. Thank you so much for gracing me with your presence today. This has been awesome and I really appreciate you sharing all these insights.
43:56 - Tanja (Guest)
Thank you. Thank you so much, Wendy. It's been great and, yeah, I hope your listeners got something out of it. And just if nothing, like if nothing else off of this is nothing else, but just the, I think the determination to keep going I think that's a huge part is like just keep moving forward and keep trying and keep it's a journey, it's not a destination. I know we say that all the time but there is no arriving and just keep taking it one step forward, one day at a time.
44:21 - Wendy (Host)
I love it. And yes, I think they heard it loud and clear, because I certainly did If they were really listening.
44:25
They totally got this idea right. We're practicing, we're getting better every day, making these baby steps in the right direction. So thank you again. Is it just me or was that full of inspiration and all kinds of nuggets of wisdom about how we can have a different relationship with our midlife bodies, how we can feel more empowered in our bodies, how we can start to talk to them differently and really shift our mindset about these bodies that we have that we need to figure out how to embrace, and I really loved Tanja's story about how she's reinventing her relationship with her body, what's happened and what can be different.
45:21
I know it's something that I struggle with you may too so I'm taking this as something I can do, some proactive steps I can take to not only think differently about my body, but to really lean into loving my body as it is, making it the best possible midlife body and beyond it can be, and appreciating all that I have, the things that I can do with this body. So such really good food for thought. If you love this episode as much as I did, do me a favor, pop over to Apple Podcasts and leave me a five-star rating and a quick review, because that is a way that makes it easier for people to find the Reinvention Rebels podcast, and we already know there is so much here. There's so much richness, there's so many ways we can lean into and take in this information and apply to our own lives. How can we reinvent in ways that light us up and make us shine, even, of course, when we are a little scared? Which brings me to mentioning the free gift I have for you my Do it Scared, do it Anyway guide, because it is scary to reconsider our bodies.
46:38
It is scary sometimes to get out of our comfort zone and take that step toward our dreams. It doesn't always come easily, but we can get started in simple ways, and this guide is here to help you do that. So I'm linking to it in the show notes. Please download it and let's get started on this journey together. There's nothing we can't do in midlife and beyond, and Tanja reminds me of that, all my other guests remind me of that. You remind me that we can do this. So happy 100th episode y'all. Thank you so much for listening today. I can't wait to see you back here in just a couple of weeks when we're going to be talking about these 100 episodes Taking a look back. Until next time, keep shining your light. Rebels, the world needs you and all that you have to offer.